Game Balls and Horns - Wk 13 vs Cards

[spudbear]

It wasn't in the Cards for the Bears today. Instead of taking advantage of Cards TO's, the Bears gift-wrapped 4 of them to allow ARI an easy W. The score looked competitive but the Bears O didn't have enough to keep up with the potent Card's O even without the turnovers. Maybe, just maybe, without the early picks and the Bears grinding it out in the drizzle they would have had a chance. Bears were missing too many playmakers on both sides of the ball. Guess I'll be a Cards fan the rest of the season, as I'm hoping they can be the NFC version of the Chiefs and we don't have to see any more Brady or Erin.

GAMEBALL
- Montgomery: He's a hoss, and at one point in the third quarter he accounted for about 2/3's of the offense. I enjoy watching him play, and it's a shame his effort is being wasted in a Nagy offense.

HORNS
- Kmet: bobble-Kmet gave up a reception that turned into a long INT return and subsequent TD when the Bears were driving early. It could have been a 14 point turnaround in the game. He has not stepped up to be the big TE threat this offense needs.

- Crawford: He's heading toward the Vildor doghouse. A couple of years ago the Bears had a strong DB corps, now they're looking for something a little better than a warm body. Wasn't Desai the previous DB coach? If only Pace had more high round picks for DB's.

In what seems to be an annual event, next up is a Sunday night tilt with the Pukers on NBC. Yes, Collinsworth will be puckering up with his green-gold lipstick slobbering over Erin. Yes, an undermanned Bears squad will be "owned" by Erin again. Maybe JF1 will be ready and we can get something a little more entertaining than Dalton pop gun passes. Probably leave the audio off. Maybe the spirit of Halas will be merciful on us it will get flexed for another more meaningful game.

[southdakbearfan]

Game Balls - all of them - go to Monty, well maybe a 1/2 of ball to Grant but I would then take it away for letting that punt, which could have been fair caught at about the 15 hit and get downed at the 3. Forgot about Roquan. He gets a game ball for sure.

Horns - Nagy - His offense has more people catching the ball while sitting still so they can get slobberknocked, the ball fly out and get picked, than any other offense I have seen. It's like YAC is the plague so Nagy runs all curls. Also forgets the run when it is dominating fo entire possessions.

Running & Passing game was virtually all Monty for a large portion of the game - dude is flat out balling and a bunch of other guys need to nut up a bit.,

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Game Ball: Monty obviously

Horn: Sam Mustipher. He came into this game with 3 fumbles in his last 6 games and added another couple today. How can a center fumble 5 times in 7 games?!! Only QBs have more fumbles than him and some like Joe Burrow, Mac Jones and Tom Brady have fewer.

[Artbest]

Game balls- Montgomery, Roquan
Horns - Andy Dalton (3 of the 4 ints were on him), Kmet (stone hands, soft) Ryan Pace - the roster is dominated by 1 year deal stiffs - yesterday was a huge indictment of the failed GM

[HisRoyalSweetness]

More horns:

Whoever is responsible for maintaining the team's headsets. This team is struggling enough as it is without having to overcome technical issues as well.

The Soldier Field turf. Another reason to move to Arlington Heights.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

More horns:

Whoever is responsible for maintaining the team's headsets. This team is struggling enough as it is without having to overcome technical issues as well.

The Soldier Field turf. Another reason to move to Arlington Heights.

The person sabotaging Nagy’s mic should get a game ball

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

More horns:

Whoever is responsible for maintaining the team's headsets. This team is struggling enough as it is without having to overcome technical issues as well.

The Soldier Field turf. Another reason to move to Arlington Heights.

The person sabotaging Nagy’s mic should get a game ball

I wonder if one of the players ran over and unplugged it?

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

Well, the outcome was pretty well assumed before the opening kick-off, and the Bears did not disappoint. Going down by two scores in the first quarter.

Game Balls:
- Monty. He's a bad-ass.
- Roquan. He's a bad-ass and needs to be extended.

Horns:
- Dalton. Bad passes all day.
- Receivers/TE's - Couldn't hang on to the ball. Don't care if it's wet. They're getting paid a lot of money to make the catch.
- Mustipher needs to be done. Give someone else a shot. See what you have (I'm looking at you Dieter).
- S position. Just soft.

Not sure if I will participate in future games. If I show up in the chat it's because of you idiots.

[wab]

I didn't watch the first half. From what I saw in the second half, the only ones seemingly trying were Quinn, Monty, and Roquan. I didn't see enough of Herbert to comment. Mustipher continues to be garbage. Dalton made some bad throws but when they hit the hands of the intended WR...

The defense is a skeleton crew. JJ seems like he's trying to play 4 positions at once.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Just read this on the Sun Times (https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2021 ... -matt-nagy):

The Bears "apparently didn’t know the forecast Sunday called for cold rain, so a bunch of players wore tacky gloves that — oops — get slick in such weather."

Mary Mother of God, can this franchise be any more inept? No wonder receivers were struggling. I wonder if Kmet was one wearing those gloves; it would certainly explain the second interception. You'd think the players would have the common sense to change gloves as soon as they saw the rain? Surely the kit guys would have other pairs available?

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Game Ball: Andy Dalton for setting an NFL record! Our venerable veteran entered the history books by becoming first QB to record more than one tackle in an NFL game.

Horn: Andy Dalton for throwing so many interceptions that he had tackle the defenders he threw the ball to not once, but twice.

[IE]

I'm not shocked at all that a Center has a few hiccups when he's going back & forth with much different QBs. The guy's been snapping the ball forever, and this is excusable recency, and should be ignored unless it continues. Mustipher should be judged on his pass protection and run blocking. I'm still not convinced that he is the reason the line sucks. He just doesn't stand out as conspicuously bad to me, like some linemen occasionally do.

Monty is a stud but do we really know that Juice Herbert wouldn't put up similar performance with the same touches? He did for 2 games, including 100 against Tampa! He fell off against the Niner - but that happens and Monty has one weak game out of 3 himself. Both are extra effort guys - and they need it to get to their 4.1-4.2 average. I'm not saying I don't like Monty he's great. I just don't understand why Monty isn't getting limited to 22-23 touches and Juice getting more... like 12-15. These guys are both good players, and should be both utilized, with Monty clearly getting the load but Juice still getting enough to make things happen. I just see zero reason to be passing the ball over 62% of the time with Andy Dalton - continuing after he threw early picks. Have I told you lately how much I hate Nagy?

[The Marshall Plan]

Well, the outcome was pretty well assumed before the opening kick-off, and the Bears did not disappoint. Going down by two scores in the first quarter.

Game Balls:
- Monty. He's a bad-ass.
- Roquan. He's a bad-ass and needs to be extended.

Horns:
- Dalton. Bad passes all day.
- Receivers/TE's - Couldn't hang on to the ball. Don't care if it's wet. They're getting paid a lot of money to make the catch.
- Mustipher needs to be done. Give someone else a shot. See what you have (I'm looking at you Dieter).
- S position. Just soft.

Not sure if I will participate in future games. If I show up in the chat it's because of you idiots.

This pretty much sums it up.

It's going to be a shame to see Monty in another uniform eventually but in 2021 you can't be paying a RB $10M + per year unless we're talking AP in his prime.

[Xee]

Just read this on the Sun Times (https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2021 ... -matt-nagy):

The Bears "apparently didn’t know the forecast Sunday called for cold rain, so a bunch of players wore tacky gloves that — oops — get slick in such weather."

Mary Mother of God, can this franchise be any more inept? No wonder receivers were struggling. I wonder if Kmet was one wearing those gloves; it would certainly explain the second interception. You'd think the players would have the common sense to change gloves as soon as they saw the rain? Surely the kit guys would have other pairs available?

Something that stuck out to me whenever Jakeem Grant was on the field was he wasn't wearing any gloves. It was so surreal just because besides for QB's, that's just something you don't see anymore. I almost thought a few times, "He can play like that?". That could be why he did that.

Here's an example at the 7:39 mark:

[HisRoyalSweetness]

I'm not shocked at all that a Center has a few hiccups when he's going back & forth with much different QBs. The guy's been snapping the ball forever, and this is excusable recency, and should be ignored unless it continues. Mustipher should be judged on his pass protection and run blocking. I'm still not convinced that he is the reason the line sucks. He just doesn't stand out as conspicuously bad to me, like some linemen occasionally do.

I'm sorry IE, but you can't have your center fumbling 5 times in 7 games and suggest it's any way excusable. It absolutely should not be ignored.

Whitehair was pilloried for his off-target shotgun snaps and they didn't happen as frequently as Mustipher's errors. Also Whitehair had the excuse that he'd never been a center before whereas that's all Mustipher's been throughout his college and pro careers. With some of those fumbled snaps the ball never even got off the ground and he's had issues both when the QB is under center and in shotgun.

Even if the offense recovers a fumbled snap it usually results in a loss of yards. If he'd given up 5 sacks then he wouldn't be getting any benefit of the doubt, so why go easy on him for causing other negative plays? If a running back had fumbled 5 times in 7 games then we'd all be screaming for him to be benched and he most likely would be. Not for one second should Mustipher get a free pass on this issue.

As for having hiccups with much different QBs, Mustipher's a professional and has to be able to cope with that. It's not as if he's not spent significant time practicing and playing with both this season. He also didn't have the same problem last year when he had two very different QBs in Trubisky and Foles. They were engaged in a competition during a limited preseason and he would have had minimal work with either, but he had no fumbled snaps with them.

It's an issue this year and he should be held accountable.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

Just read this on the Sun Times (https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2021 ... -matt-nagy):

The Bears "apparently didn’t know the forecast Sunday called for cold rain, so a bunch of players wore tacky gloves that — oops — get slick in such weather."

Mary Mother of God, can this franchise be any more inept? No wonder receivers were struggling. I wonder if Kmet was one wearing those gloves; it would certainly explain the second interception. You'd think the players would have the common sense to change gloves as soon as they saw the rain? Surely the kit guys would have other pairs available?

Something that stuck out to me whenever Jakeem Grant was on the field was he wasn't wearing any gloves. It was so surreal just because besides for QB's, that's just something you don't see anymore. I almost thought a few times, "He can play like that?".

He was wearing gloves when he tipped that badly thrown ball for the first interception. Presumably he took them off at some point because of the conditions.

[wab]

I'm not shocked at all that a Center has a few hiccups when he's going back & forth with much different QBs. The guy's been snapping the ball forever, and this is excusable recency, and should be ignored unless it continues. Mustipher should be judged on his pass protection and run blocking. I'm still not convinced that he is the reason the line sucks. He just doesn't stand out as conspicuously bad to me, like some linemen occasionally do.

I'm sorry IE, but you can't have your center fumbling 5 times in 7 games and suggest it's any way excusable. It absolutely should not be ignored.

Whitehair was pilloried for his off-target shotgun snaps and they didn't happen as frequently as Mustipher's errors. Also Whitehair had the excuse that he'd never been a center before whereas that's all Mustipher's been throughout his college and pro careers. With some of those fumbled snaps the ball never even got off the ground and he's had issues both when the QB is under center and in shotgun.

Even if the offense recovers a fumbled snap it usually results in a loss of yards. If he'd given up 5 sacks then he wouldn't be getting any benefit of the doubt, so why go easy on him for causing other negative plays? If a running back had fumbled 5 times in 7 games then we'd all be screaming for him to be benched and he most likely would be. Not for one second should Mustipher get a free pass on this issue.

As for having hiccups with much different QBs, Mustipher's a professional and has to be able to cope with that. It's not as if he's not spent significant time practicing and playing with both this season. He also didn't have the same problem last year when he had two very different QBs in Trubisky and Foles. They were engaged in a competition during a limited preseason and he would have had minimal work with either, but he had no fumbled snaps with them.

It's an issue this year and he should be held accountable.

Mustipher has been bad. Like really bad. I totally understand that he's a good kid and he tries really hard and he's smart and Olin really like him...but none of that is translating to good play on the football field. I've watched this kid since he became a full time starter in 2016. He's just not s starter in the NFL. He was helped greatly at ND by playing between NFL caliber guards for 4 years.

[IE]

That may be true about Sam - that he's not good. I've already admitted I'm not the best judge of center play, and would defer to other folks. But usually I have a pretty good eye for truly bad & with him it just escapes me for some reason. I mean I hear he missed this play or that play - but I also hear of good blocks so I don't know I'm just not forming an opinion from watching him play for some reason.

When I responded above it was just because I don't think fumbled snaps is a persistent problem with him, nor would fumbling 5 snaps in 7 games be the reason a team would shit can an otherwise good center. They'd just work on it. Maybe it is picking nits - but I sort of viewed that as piling on.

I think the thing that bothers me about dismissing Sam is the same principle that has be bothered by dismissing James Daniels... they're both really young and potentially have so much time left. Continuity as a unit seems so important. There are other young centers that are really good already (Ragnow, Humphrey). But if you look at the PFF rankings and glance over at the ages... there are only 2 in the top 15 that are under 29. Most are over 30 some well over. All the 24-26ish newer players are in the bottom half of the league. Food for thought? I don't know.

https://www.pff.com/nfl/grades/position/c

[RichH55]

Really wanted Creed - the movie, the band, the center

Sad we didn't get him